Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1887-11-29
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daily eagle
THE FEAR OF SNAKES.
NYM CRINKLE WRITES A CHAPTER
ABOUT THE OPHlDIANS.


ABOUT THE OPHIDlANS.
ing-The Psychic Side of a serpent's
Character-One of Mackaye's Snake
Seances-The Danger of Pooling.
Steele Mackaye is the only man that have
ever met who has made rational study Of
serpentology. 1t is true enough that l do
not agree with him in all bis conclusions, as
will explain presently. but must acknowl-
edge his accumulation of knowledge and the
philosophic spirit with which he has investi-
gated what may be called the mystic side of
the ophidian.
Here let me say that ! have an antipathy to
the serpent-not unusual, but which is ut
terly beyond the control of my will or reason.
/ do not think that am devoid of the quail
ity which passes by the name Of physical
courage On more than one occasion / have
confronted q dog which ! had every reason
to believe was rabid and from which other
men ran away; but on the sudden appearance
Of snake c sensation Of dread and weakness
overcomes me That is unaccountable and ire
sistible. Once, when climbing some rocks
with my boy in the Great South Park, we
came unexpectedly upon rattlesnake coiled
with his head and rattles in the air about
three feet above US. now know, and / wish
TO confess it, that for the first time in my life
I experienced the partial sensation Of faint
Ing Ny boy killed the serpent unconcern-
edly, but l was untitled for the journey for
an hour
This strange fear is, as have said, by no
means uncommon. l have encountered it
among all classes Of men, and have even OBJ
served it among frontiersmen, who had been
unable by years of experience in snake in
Tested districts to overcome it, Whether this
is q congenial antipathy and the result of in
herited prejudices or is self made from early
impressions and subsequent imaginings is an
open question.
PHYSICAL MYSTERY.
Mr. Mackaye holds that it is the inherited
result of the mysticism that has surrounded
the serpent from the time of Moses, and that
it can be overcome by mere exercise of the
will and a familiarity with the snake.
Here | take issue with him. / am inclined
to believe that the universal fear and horror
inspired by the serpent have psychic cause
not yet explained and that this terror reaches
its maximum in certain organizations quite
independently of their associations and train
ing. No one who has seen horse trembling
throughout his frame and breaking into cold
sweat at an ordinary black snake in the road,
or TO take a still better example, no one who
has seen bulldog, the most courageous and
least sensitive of all the canine tribe, SILVER
and put his tail between his legs at the sniff
of harmless garter snake, can have failed to
wonder at the mysterious dread which APP
pears to run all through the animal kingdom
or at least all the domesticated part of it
with tho single exception, il l am TO believe
common rural superstition, of the hog.
Most of my readers who have travelled in
the southwest are familiar with the repug-
nant experiments of the frontersnen Of cut
ting the head from a fresh killed rattlesnake
and coiling the decapitnted body on the top of
a barrel TO see the involuntary muscular con-
fractions initiate the striking act of the live
serpent. But the remarkable part of this
disgusting experiment is, that not one man in
ten has sufficient nerve 10 hold his hand up
and let the headlesS body strike at it.
a PAINTING FIT.
About three years ago l saw a great,
brawny man in Bunnells museum toPple over
in the crowd. He was carried out,
then supposed, i'll a dying condition, and
water poured over him i'll the lobby. When
an ambulance arrived he had recovered suf-
ficiently to explain the cause of his fainting
fit. and he attributed II to the serpent exhi-
bition made by the woman who put the
pythons round her body. l took pains to
learn something Of his antecedents, and found
that he had been a soldier and noted for his
bravery and courage.
| could multiply these instances to any ex-
tent. but what CANT to say is TINT never
met anybody who bad this antipathy more
unreasonably developed than myself.
Sons ten years ago Steele Mackaye had
some literary work to do in which / was
collaborateur, and be invited me to his house
in Stamford for week. Anna Dickinson
had told me something about his snake Sc
ances, but had forgotten all about it, and I
arrived there in the evening and was con-
Quoted to his study. Imagine my horror as
j stood at the partly open door, and, looking
I'm, saw my friend seated at writing table
in the middle of the room. having for a COM
panien ON eighteen foot South American boa,
the body of which was partly on tie floor,
while the flattened head with its little lidIess
ewes, lay within q foot of the manuscript
The effect of this upon me was instantly
apparent to Mackaye, who jumped up
and began 70 upbraid me for giving way
to what he called an entirely irrational weak
ness. He appealed to my philosophy, to my
will, to my manhood. Pointed out to me that
my terror was a childish one, ungrounded in
sense, and that the healthy intelligence over
came It.
A SUBTLE, sICKENING DOOR.
No one but myself can know how vain
were all these appeals. | distinctly remen-
Der that the moment / put my head in that
door my sense was attracted by that strange,
subtle and sickening Odor which emanates
from the ophidiGn. and TO which some organ
izations are so susceptible. Its effect upon me
is not unlike that of sulphuretted hydrogen
gas producing sensations of vertigo, accom-
p,nied by that illusion of surface GOODNESS
1nich is produced on the gustatory nerves by
peppermint.
Il viii show YOU" said Mackaye, that
your fears arc unworthy Of you, and con-
vince you in five minutes that the serpent, so
far from being a malignant, dangerous
enemy, is simply an unvolitional spinal sys-
ten, without a cerebrum, and subject ALSO
lutely to rhythm Of sound and motion"
lie then began a series OF D6sartian eXper
iuents with his snake, as l stood shrinkingly
ar the door with my hand upon the knob. He
made siRuous and graceful passes with his
his hands, in which his arm initiated the con-
velsions of 4 serpent, describing beautiful
and graceful curves that seemed TO pass from
his shoulder along 70 flexible bumerus IS the
metacarpal extremities.
The action apparently soothed the reptile,